Course Description
Study of major issues in cinema history (movements, national cinemas, directors, eras, or technologies).
Athena Title
Seminar in Film History
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course offers an opportunity for students from various graduate programs to explore specific major problems in the historical study of cinema, at an advanced level. The format allows students to concentrate on significant movements and/or time periods in cinema history, and includes screenings of pertinent films. Students will develop skills in historiography and the critical analysis of economic, stylistic, technological, and cultural contexts for cinema and its development.
Topical Outline
Topics will vary. The outline for POST-WORLD WAR II FRENCH CINEMA is: 1. Poetic Realism and the classical French cinema of the 1930s 2. Occupation Tales: Nazi Control (COIC) and Vichy cinema 3. Liberation, the CNC, and Tradition of Quality cinema 4. Toward a French New Wave: From Bazin and CAHIERS to Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, and Rohmer 5. Left Bank Cinema: Alain Resnais and Agnes Varda 6. May ’68 and the Rise of Political Theory: Althusser, Lacan and TOUT VA BIEN 7. 1970s Post-New Wave Cinema: Auteurism at a Crossroad 8. Social Realist Traditions vs. 1980s Postmodern “Cinéma du look” 9. The Rise of Women Filmmakers in France: From Varda to Breillat 10. French Popular Genre Cinema Since the 1990s 11. Contemporary Cinéphilia: Theories of Aesthetics vs. Politics 12. The Cartoon Plan: French Animation Today